
Leonid Meteor Shower Tonight 155
The annual Leonid meteor shower hits tonight, as the Earth moves through the orbital path of a comet. The show is exceptionally good every 33 years, and in 1966 it was so dramatic some people thought the world was coming to an end. No one knows how it will look this year, so keep your fingers crossed. You
don't need a telescope,
just
warm clothes, patience, and clear skies.
The Leonids'
unpredictability
make it worth going out as soon as it's dark, but the peak is supposed to be between 11 PM and 1 AM (EST?). If it's cloudy, check out
NASA's weather-balloon webcam.
NYC (Score:2)
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More Leonids info (Score:4)
-=-=-=-=-
looking forward (Score:1)
Peak viewing (Score:2)
Interesting bit of Leonid history (Score:2)
My 2 cents worth (Score:2)
Second, this will STILL not be multicast! Even NASA, who have multicast facilities, won't interrupt some pre-recorded multicast which they've been repeating every 10 minutes since mid-day, for the meteor shower of the millenium. Last year, all of the sites broadcating webcams and RealAudio links were overloaded to the point of collapsing. BUT THEY WILL NOT LEARN!!! What is WRONG with these people?!?!?! The meteors should land on these idiot's thick skulls and thwack some sense into them!
(Can you tell I like multicast technology, and DON'T like horrible lag?)
No point looking too early in the evening (Score:2)
And don't trust the predicted peak time too much. Last year it was about 18 hours earlier than predicted. We had an excellent display in Scotland.
Visible in the US? (Score:1)
Re:Visible in the US? (Score:2)
What we can expect (Score:1)
I saw it last nite! (Score:2)
Got Gear? (Score:1)
KE4PJW
new thread (Score:1)
Predictions Last year were wrong (Score:1)
This year we think we've got it figured - everyone in europe should be in for a good show.
Re:I saw it last nite! (Score:1)
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You saw *something*, but what? (Score:2)
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Advertisers: If you attach cookies to your banner ads,
Uh oh. (Score:1)
"Hey, aren't those meteorites supposed to me MUCH smaller?"
FOOM FOOM FOOM FOOM!
Later
Erik Z
My car!
Peak rate 2am /UTC/ (~not~ EST) (Score:5)
Note that the ZHR is a /theoretical/ maximum that would be seen by an observer if the radiant (the line of comet's orbit, ie the place in the sky where the meteors appear to radiate away from) were directly overhead. Actual observed rates are always lower.
Hints and tips for observing :
Finally, don't be too disappointed if you "only" get a ZHR of a few hundred. Last year's observations allowed significantly better understanding of the separate streams of debris coming off the parent comet. Predictions are for a relatively quiet year next year, but much higher ZHRs in 2001 and 2002.
Clear skies, all !
North American Meteor Network [infoave.net] /VERY/ high traffic at the moment !
Meteorobs mailing list [tiac.net] -- NB
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Can meteors fix telescopes? (Score:2)
Hopefully a meteor will gently smack the Hubble and fix it. :-)
Re:NYC (Score:1)
>Will I be able to see this shower from Oxford, England at, say, 3 or 4 in the morning?
Yes, the best time is supposed to be about 3am GMT.
Its worth getting into the countryside to avoid the light pollution from street lights. I think I'll be visiting friends in the sticks south of Bristol.
Denial of Meteors (Score:3)
Leonids (Score:1)
Contribute to the IMO 'live-ish' update (Score:5)
Leoniods 99 updates [amsmeteors.org].
American Meteor Society [amsmeteors.org]
This is X/posted w/out permission (sorry Marc! )
\a
I N T E R N A T I O N A L M E T E O R O R G A N I Z A T I O N
1999 Leonids: Rapid Information Dissemination
=============================================
Dear meteor observer,
>From earlier communications, you have learned that the IMO is setting
up a communication network to obtain reliable information as soon as
possible after the event in the morning of November 18. We invite you
to contribute to this effort.
First of all, we want to point out you must DISTINGUISH between the
USUAL OBSERVATIONAL REPORTS, such as collected by the IMO's Visual
Commission, and which may be used for detailed, global analyses, and
the "EXPRESS REPORT" described below which serves as sole purpose the
compilation of a rough but reliable picture of the activity within
hours after the event.
The EXPRESS REPORT should have the following format:
Meteo R. Observer
Fireball City (45N 10E)
Time Interval (UT) Lim. Magn. Nr. of Leonids Remarks (if any)
-----------------------------------------------
01:15-01:30 5.8 27 None
01:30-01:45 5.9 56 None
01:45-02:00 6.1 156 None
.
.
.
To the extent possible, bin your observations for this "express report"
in time interval of 15 MINUTES.
(Again, the full report of your observations will be different from
this express report, as shorter intervals are required as well as
magnitude distributions and some additional data - see the earlier
posted article with visual observing hints - but the above data
suffice for the purpose indicated.)
If you wish to collaborate with the IMO in this respect, please send
your express report for the night of November 17/18 ONLY (or, of course,
for any unexpected activity you might happen to witness)
*** IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE OBSERVATION *** to the following email
addresses:
wgn@imo.net
gyssens@hcoss.uia.ac.be
The latter is a back-up address in case Web-site access to www.imo.net
would prove to slow down our computer too much. This back-up address
will be active only on November 17 and 18!
Thank you in advance for any collaboration we may receive!
Marc Gyssens
International Meteor Organization
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Re:My 2 cents worth (Score:1)
Bad news ;( (Score:2)
But!
Looking at the current infrared satellite images (http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/pub/s at-images/D2.JPG [nottingham.ac.uk]) it's not looking good...
The sky is way too cloudy... too bad
Maybe England, Spain or France has some chance.
Chicago Viewinig last night (Score:1)
Re:You saw *something*, but what? (Score:1)
I doubted it too (when I got home my stepson swore it was a UFO, heh), but this morning on the way in all the radio stations were talking about it, mentioning it was verified from Wright Patterson Airforce base in Dayton, OH. which is just west of Columbus.
Just now I checked the website for the local newspaper and found an article here [dispatch.com] (note the logic of columbus residents calling the police) that has quotes from some OSU [osu.edu] Astronomers verifying what you said - that it was junk and not part of the Leonids.
Damn! It certainly was brilliant looking. I've got my hopes up for tonite now!!
Re:Got Gear? (Score:1)
Wish time! (Score:4)
make $1,000,000 a year;
have at least 5 Playboy playmates after my body at all times;
have raised my IQ to the viscinity of 250;
can eat a dozen donuts at every meal and stay slim.
I hope to catch the Leonids this year, and if I do, I'll wish that I:
get rid of all that money that attracts unwanted friends;
stop going out with these superficial bimbos with silicone implants;
get a little dumber, because worrying about special groups of non-linear differential equations as applied to a parametrised space-time tensor is no fun.
I'll keep the fat-free donut rampage capacity, though!
"The wages of sin is death but so is the salary of virtue, and at least the evil get to go home early on Fridays."
Re:Leonids (Score:1)
In Ireland, the fun should start at about 1am, but word around the campfire is that it's going to be too cloudy to see anything. This was the case last year, when I froze my ass of and saw nothing.
I hope you've better luck in the Uk.
Re:Leonids (Score:1)
HH
Re:Chicago Viewinig last night (Score:1)
First of all, that probably was a satellite (possibly an Iridium). 20-30 seconds is a long time for a meteor. Secondly, if it was a meteor, it was probably a sporadic and not associated with the Leonids since Leo doesn't rise until about 1am. Thirdly, it was moving in the wrong direction to be a Leonid.
Fireball over the midwest last night (Score:3)
I basically was getting out of work, looked up and saw this huge greenish fireball. it then seemed to split into 3 parts leaving a long trail behind it and was heading towards lake michigan. It took around 30 seconds to pass over me and out of sight. I was like 'whoa' and then heard people on a local radio station getting calls about it. It was really cool.
Good news is that I think I could live with that image as my memory of the meteor shower, so that means I can actually get some sleep tonight!
--
Gonzo Granzeau
Re:Got Gear? (Score:1)
a radio that will work at that frequency. Could
I tune to a distant TV station and get the same
effect?
Re:My 2 cents worth (Score:2)
First, on the astronomy side, this will be the last good Leonid meteor shower. Ever.
Not true. There are much better showers predicted for 2001 and 2002 - have a look at this report [arm.ac.uk] - specifically the predicted "ZHR" (Zenital Hourly Rate - the number of meteors seen per hour under ideal conditions) in table 3.
Re:Peak rate 2am /UTC/ (~not~ EST) (Score:2)
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Re:NYC (Score:1)
Re:Got Gear? (Score:1)
Re:Chicago Viewinig last night (Score:1)
Any Leonid activity you see will originate from the east, after the radiant rises, which will be aprox. midnight, EST.
Check here for info [skypub.com]
Re:Chicago Viewinig last night (Score:1)
Re:My 2 cents worth (Score:1)
Especialy I am wondering WHY those big sites won't use multicast at least to some Mirrors, so that they could be much more effective.
(I allways HATE the way those rt vids saturate our oversea lines
Re:I saw it last nite! (Score:1)
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Gonzo Granzeau
Re:Got Gear? (Score:1)
Re:Wish time! (Score:2)
ROTFL!!!
Re:NYC (Score:1)
Re:Fireball over the midwest last night (Score:2)
Re:Chicago Viewinig last night (Score:1)
Basically, the way the world was turned, the only debris that the midwest would see would be rocks that only skipped on the surface, due to the steep angle due to the early time. At 1 AM, we might see some short streaks due to meteors coming straight down, burning out quickly. but in this particular case, we got to see a very large one burn out slowly no the upper levels of the atomosphere, and it was quite impressive!
--
Gonzo Granzeau
BBC Article on viewing in the UK (Score:2)
They also have a story saying the viewing prospects are good [bbc.co.uk].
Want to know the best time to watch at your loc ? (Score:4)
Re:My 2 cents worth (Score:3)
The "standard" mbone tools (SDR, VIC and RAT) have become very usable, even for "Joe Average". There is an "integrated" environment, supplied by the University College of London (UCL), called "Relate", which merges everything together into a very simple, easy-to-use desktop.
The big sites could very easily multicast to mirrors - they have the connections needed and the software tools. What they don't have is anything between the ears, besides sawdust.
Re:Leonids (Score:1)
Battery Park (Score:1)
I personally, will probably head down to Battery Park City and camp out on one of the multiple lawns nearby Stuyvesant High School.
Re:Wish time! (Score:2)
Re:saw it as well (Score:1)
Re:More Leonids info (Score:2)
Re:Relax (Score:3)
No, and you shouldn't either. This particular meteor storm has recurred every year, with peaks every 33 years. The last peak was 1966, and was by all accounts spectactular.
If you're worried about the conjunction of this with the turn of the millenium, you should relax on this as well. The christian counting of years was calculated by Dennis the Short, in the mid 500s at the direction of the Pope. He worked off of events of the time that modern bible scholars and historians now know were inaccurate. The best calculations show that the birth of Jesus was 4 years earlier than Dennis calculated. Thus, the millenium really turned in 1996. You missed it.
...phil
Last night in INDY/Indianapolis I saw Big fireball (Score:2)
Re:Can meteors fix telescopes? (Score:1)
Re:Peak viewing time is midnight to 6am *LOCAL TIM (Score:1)
The "Peak Time" being mentioned is when the comet's orbit intersects that of the Earth. From experience we know that the dust cloud is not always present at that point. The 33-year cycle is from several past observations -- the math is still being worked on.
As was already mentioned, the dust cloud was 12-18 hours off of last year's orbital intersection. Plus or minus 12 covers a 24-hour period. Youse watches the skies, youse takes youse chances.
Last night (Score:1)
I realize that as we enter the debris path this number will rise, but I thought people might be curious what last night was like.
(Score:1)
Re:Chicago Viewinig last night (Score:1)
I want to see the shower, but I live downtown, so I'm screwed from light pollution. Maybe if I go to the lake and look northeast....
UFO? (Score:1)
Re:YES - 2m (Score:1)
I'm using the KPC 9612 setup described in QST...
Do you have a link to more info about this setup? Or can you tell me what issue of QST it was in? It sounds really interesting...I wonder if I could cobble something together before tonight yet...
Chill, man (Score:2)
Of course, if your locale is swaddled in clouds, you're SOL. Try again Thursday....or next year, or 2001, both of which should be as good or better.
Re:Battery Park (Score:1)
Re:saw it as well (Score:1)
Re:My 2 cents worth (Score:1)
I hope... (Score:1)
Re:I saw it last nite! (Score:2)
This is from the american meteor society's website:
http://amsmeteors.org/leo99update.html
"On Tuesday evening, locally Nov. 16, at approximately 7:07 EST / 6:07 CST (November 17, 1999, 0007 UTC), a brilliant fireball lit up the American midwest, travelling slowly from west to east, and apparently breaking apart in transit. The AMS has received reports about this event from locations across central North America, from southern Canada to northern Texas (!). Regardless of what is being reported at other web sites and in the popular press, this event could NOT have ben associated with the Leonid meteor shower. At the time of this event, North America was completely in the shadow of the Leonid stream, with the radiant located slightly east of the anti-zenith, that is, underfoot. This object is most likely a very bright sporadic fireball (of which there are a few each year of this magnitude), or perhaps reentering space debris. "
Also! (other notes) (Score:1)
* You don't need binoculars or a telescope. The show is over the whole sky, and you'll miss a lot if you use them.
However, if you want to try to get a "close up look", remember to never put your face to bare metal in the cold.
* Never lie on the bare ground. It will seep your body heat many times faster than the air will.
Re:You saw *something*, but what? (Score:1)
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if so then u might be screwed... (Score:1)
Re:Can meteors fix telescopes? (Score:1)
Wrong story... (Score:1)
Re:GOD DAMNIT~!!!!!!!!!! (Score:1)
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I stand corrected (Score:1)
Re:Wish time! (Score:1)
I'm not a native English speaker. You try writing French as well as I write English. Hah!
"The wages of sin is death but so is the salary of virtue, and at least the evil get to go home early on Fridays."
If last night in KY is any indication.... (Score:1)
Here's a photo of it: (Score:1)
click here [fox19.com]
Re:Battery Park (Score:1)
Re:Can meteors fix telescopes? (Score:1)
NASA websites, and live webcast of event (Score:2)
There are some wonderful websites already up discussing the shower (possible storm)
See http://www.leonidslive.com for NASA's webcast and frequently updated meteor counts. BTW- there are some great tips on observing at this site, plus a number of star charts and data sheets, should you want to submit your observations.
Two other sites that I like are http://www.leonidstorm.com and http://www.space.com
Maybe we'll get lucky this year. Next year it looks like the Moons phase and location is going to really hamper any observations.
Saw some fireballs last night (Score:1)
Chris
Re:You saw *something*, but what? (Score:1)
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TROLL (you have been warned ;) ) (Score:1)
> UFO is because they have an offical report
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Re:Can meteors fix telescopes? (Score:2)
it lost the last gyroscope. My understanding is that since astronomical observations can't be done with two gyros, there simply wasn't provision made in the software for two-gyro manuevers. So it is incapacitated until the shuttle flight in December (which is itself being squeezed between wiring problems at one end and Y2K compliance concerns at the other).
comets and metoer shower... (Score:1)
remember the day of the comet and day of the triffids!!!????
I'm running for hills, its NOT safe!!!
LOL :-)
Re:My 2 cents worth (Score:2)
Progress Report from New Zealand (Score:1)
Re:Peak rate 2am /UTC/ (~not~ EST) (Score:1)
Best view (Score:1)
when? (Score:1)
Time Zone (Score:2)
As I read the articles, the peak is expected to be EARLIER than that time, but below the horizon. The point in the sky that these radiate from rises about 11 PM local time, and the moon sets about 1 AM providing better contrast in a darker sky.
In the sky, the peak is 4:15 UT (GMT)(with lots of hand-waving about +/- as much as 12 hours). In North America, you need to wait till Leo rises, and perhaps till the moon sets, so you can see what's left of a waning show.
Not all of us can control our environment (Score:2)
(Of course, if the sky is anything close to clear (ie not actually raining), I'll be out in the nearest open and away from lights area hoping for a show!)
Warm Weather, No Warm clothes for me! (Score:2)
The Upside to that is, of course, that I don't have to worry about it being cold outside. I don't even need a jacket at night yet!
Re:Peak viewing (Score:3)
Re:when? (Score:2)
...phil
Re:Size of last night's fireball? (Score:2)
Bolides like this don't always break up, either. There was one a year or two ago (in the Southwest?) that was seen by thousands of people during daylight, but the trace it left suggested that it passed through and then left our atmosphere again.
Space junk is usually travelling pretty fast (90 minute orbit, compared with 24 hrs for the ground just a couple hundred miles below). We know about the big space junk (Cheyenne Mountain keeps close track of it); this doesn't sound much like a satellite orbit to me. It's possible, though.
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Lake Effect [wwa.com], a weblog
Re:seriously though... (Score:2)
And this is another example of a discussion which should be in a SlashdotTalk discussion page, if there were one for us to discuss /. in...